Aston Villa 4 Newcastle United 1 | OneFootball

Ollie Watkins put the visitors ahead after 33 seconds before Fabian Schär - who scored twice at Villa Park in last season's 3-1 win - levelled for the Magpies.

But three goals after the break saw Unai Emery's side deservedly take the points, with Ian Maatsen, a Dan Burn own goal and Amadou Onana ensuring that the visitors' fine run of form ended in the Midlands.

Villa led inside the first minute. Youri Tielemans slipped in Watkins, whose shot may well have been simple enough to deal with had it not taken a wicked deflection off Schär and wrongfooted the helpless Nick Pope as it bounced in.

It could have been two within five minutes, with Watkins crashing a left-footed effort off the crossbar as United struggled to find rhythm in the early stages. Matty Cash's angled shot from the byline forced Pope to make an unorthodox save with his chest, but with 18 minutes gone the Magpies levelled. Harvey Barnes' cross from the left was a superb one and Schär met it at the far post, squeezing his header past Emi Martínez to level matters.

Marco Asensio missed his kick when presented with a glorious opening straight after that goal, and later provided the delivery for Watkins - a constant threat for the hosts - to hit the woodwork again with a header. Martínez was required to palm away Sandro Tonali's low 25-yarder and at the other end Pope repelled a Morgan Rogers shot, but by the end of the half Newcastle were starting to get into their stride, with Tino Livramento seeing a curling shot blocked.

After the restart, Tielemans' glancing header from a corner was stopped by Tonali on the post before Maatsen miscued when following up, and Rogers was denied by a superb sliding challenge from Schär. Villa pushed hard to retake the lead, and Pope had to throw an instinctive arm out to save from John McGinn before clutching a Rogers attempt immediately after.

Just after the hour, and after Alexander Isak had seen his shot held by Martínez, Villa did move back in front. It was a flowing move which culminated in Watkins playing in the overlapping full back Maatsen, whose finish across Pope was crisp.

And two quickfire strikes with just over quarter of an hour remaining ended United's hopes of taking anything from the game. Villa's third went down as a Burn own goal, after substitute Jacob Ramsey's low cross towards Tielemans was inadvertently turned in by Burn from close range as he looked to prevent the Belgian from scoring himself.

And another replacement then added extra gloss to the scoreline. After Pope had saved well from Rogers as he homed in on goal, Villa worked the ball back to Onana, who rifled an unstoppable fourth into the top left-hand corner to wrap up a day to forget for the Magpies.